Köpöczi Rózsa: A grafikus Szőnyi – rézkarcok (PMMI – Szőnyi István Alapítvány, Szentendre – Zebegény, 2000)

Resume (angol)

KÖPÖCZI RÓZSA SZŐNYI THE GRAPHIC ARTIST ETCHINGS Résumé István Szőnyi was one of the few artists who was given the privilege that the house where his paintings and drawings had been born survived as a museum to house at least a part of his oeuvre. Today it is difficult to reconstruct how the collection of works developed in the museum, which was founded in the Zebegénv mansion after the death of Szőnvi's wife in 1967. One part of the heritage got to the inheritors, another to the Hungarian National Gallery and only a smaller part remained in the new institution. The marrow of the collection is the graphic works. It came to light during processing the material in store that the master had left several thousand drawings, sketches, gouaches, watercolours and etchings. The majority of these works remained in the museum. This inspired the colleagues to begin the compilation of the oeuvre-catalogue of the painter with introducing his graphic life-work. It is the third volume of the series titled Szőnyi the Graphic Artist that the reader can take in his/her hand. In this book we would like to look over the whole etching oeuvre of István Szőnyi. It is a relatively easy task as all of his prints can be found in the museum of Zebegény. Even if there are a few missing, the list of the most important ones are complete. In the oeuvre of Szőnyi prints were more than merelv a genre accompanying his panel pictures. Lajos Németh, a prominent art historian of the period, maintained that it was painters and sculptors who - until the 40s - established graphic tradition in Hungary. No matter how excellent masters of graphics there were, the best quality works were not made by them. István Szőnyi also had an important role in establishing the above-mentioned graphic tradition. His etchings are not only important pieces of his oeuvre but also have a significant place in the art history between the two world wars. Though István Szőnyi is regarded as a member of the so-called "generation of etchers", he chose a different way than most of the masters from the faculty of graphic art led by Viktor Olgyai. However, before introducing the more than 200 works in detail, let us go back some centuries earlier to see where the genre came from, how it changed the functions of European art and the receivers' customs having existed up to that time. The origin of print-making goes back to as early as the birth of the Gutenberg Galaxy, its history is combined with that of book printing. Its importance however, soon exceeded the limited borders of art and - through reproducibility - appeared as a new medium conveying great compositions, and the results of a new erudition for a greater public. The rulers of the age also recognised that they could employ the new branch of art for representational purposes, while in the 1 6

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h century reformation 22 made use of it as well for spreading its ideas. The first genres of applied graphics came into being: multiplied pattern-sheets to replace traditional pattern books, ornamental stained glass archetypes and playing cards. The appearance of the new way of expression went together with democratization and levelling of art, though at the same time the danger of dilution was present. The latter was avoided by the appearance of the great masters, who considered it very important to make prints an organic part of their art - besides painting. Schongauer became worldfamous due to his etchings. His compositions influenced all the Late-Gothic art of Central Europe. Dürer's woodcuts and etchings were of the same quality as his paintings. They regarded the tasks offered bv print-making as a challenge, they felt the taste of the new genre, the richness of its hidden possibilities of expressions. Besides reproducing well-known paintings, they produced individual compositions, created the genre of series of engravings, cycles consisting of several sheets. They discovered the dramatic effect of black and white lines, and their engravings of dramatic strength enhanced almost to expressiveness belong to the unforgettable chapters of art history. The reproduced sheets could make their impact in a much wider range than a famous painting or sculpture. The artists who recognised the strength hidden in it always took the burin and the etching needle even if they declared themselves practically painter or sculptor. Rembrandt, the Dutch genius of the 17

th century, also belonged to them. Instead of the crystalclear, elegant tracing of engraving he chose the more painterly methods of etching, richer in tonality. Trying to find the archetypes of Szőnyi's etching art we can look back to as far as Rembrandt. Presumably it was during his journey to Vienna that Szőnyi first met the works of the great artist. The extremely rich graphic collection of the Museum of Fine Arts was also at hand for the young artist to find his own way of art. Edit Hoffmann, a learned art historian of the Museum of Fine Arts at the beginning of the 1920s gained imperishable merits with promoting graphic life in Hungary. Besides the exhibitions displaying the world-famous classical collection of the graphic department, she wrote articles to propagate graphics, thus encouraging the patrons of the age, on the one hand, to collect, while the young artists, on the other, to do serigraphy. Nobody trying his hand at this genre can avoid Rembrandt's etchings as the Dutch master handled the etching needle with such a rapid and determined gesture of a genius as if no one before him had worked with a copper plate or revealed the secrets of this technique. He was the first to start work without having a fixed idea. Sometimes he even changed the composition six or seven times and made "state-marks" about the intermediate stages. His sheets were different from the cold elegance of those only drawn bv painters and carried out by engravers, which used to be a routine procedure earlier. Rembrandt was trying to find the form on the plate, thus his lines are often hovering, sometimes entangled, seeking. In spite of this the stages fixed on each "state-mark" carry a deep meaning, can be compared to the changes of human life, the formation of a being that is continuously corrected bv life but does not lose anything of its previous ego. During his life, Rembrandt turned to etching several times. This meant a certain type of asceticism 19. FEKVŐ NŐI AKT 1930